Tavannes himself terms these expressions "an artful harangue;" but he
says, "it moved, astounded, and dismayed the king, not so much on the
score of the Huguenots as of his mother and brother, whose subtlety,
ambition, and power in the state he knew; he marvelled to see his
counsels thus revealed; he avowed them, asked pardon, promised obedience.
Having sown this distrust, having shot this first bolt, the queen-mother,
still in displeasure, withdrew to Monceaux. The trembling king followed
her; he found her with his brother and Sieurs de Tavannes, de Retz, and
the Secretary of State de Sauve, the last of whom threw himself upon his
knees and received his Majesty's pardon for having revealed his counsels
to his mother. The infidelity, the bravado, the audacity, the menaces,
and the enterprises of the Huguenots were magnified with so much of truth
and art that from friends behold them converted into enemies of the king,
who, nevertheless, wavering as ever, could not yet give up the desire he
had conceived of winning glory and reputation by war with Spain."

A fresh incident increased the agitation in the royal circle. In July,
1572, the throne of Poland had become vacant. A Polish embassy came to
offer it to the Duke of Anjou. On his part and his mother's, there was
at first great eagerness to accept it; Catherine was charmed to see her
favorite son becoming a king. "If we had required," says a Polish
historian, "that the French should build a bridge of solid gold over the
Vistula, they would have agreed." Hesitation soon took the place of
eagerness; Henry demanded information, and took time to reply. He had
shown similar hesitation at the time of the negotiations entered upon in
London, in 1571, with a view of making him the husband of Elizabeth,
Queen of England: Coligny, who was very anxious to have him away, pressed
Charles IX. to insist upon a speedy solution. "If Monsieur," said he,
"who would not have England by marriage, will not have Poland either by
election, let him declare once for all that he will not leave France."
The relations between the two brothers became day by day more
uncomfortable: two years later, Henry, for a brief period King of Poland,
himself told the story of them to his physician Miron. "When, by any
chance," he said, "the queen-mother and I, after the admiral's departure,
approached the king to speak to him of any matters, even those which
concerned merely his pleasure, we found h